25 Indian DeepTech Startups to Watch in 2026: Space, Semiconductors, Robotics and Defence

Here’s the number that explains this list: $290 million.

That’s how much deeptech startups raised in Q3 2026, according to Inc42’s funding report, spread across just 28 deals. A year earlier it was $105 million across 29. Same number of bets, nearly three times the money.

So who’s getting those cheques? We went through funding data, company announcements and the business press to build a list of the deeptech startups India 2026 is actually backing. Twenty-five companies, sorted by sector, each with its latest verified round. It’s a watchlist, not a ranking.

Why the cheques got bigger

Space did most of the lifting. Spacetech startups pulled in $130 million, about 45% of the quarter’s deeptech funding, and Pixxel’s $100 million round was one of four mega rounds.

The base is also widening. Nasscom and Zinnov count more than 4,200 deeptech startups in India, with 550-plus founded in 2025 alone. Deeptech raised $2.3 billion that year, up 37%, and AI accounted for 91% of it. That’s why a language-model company sits on a list with rocket makers.

Policy and new funds are pushing too. In February the government created a dedicated Deep Tech Startup category, stretching recognition to 20 years and the turnover limit to ₹300 crore. Aum Ventures has raised ₹225 crore in the first close of its ₹750 crore fund, aiming at 25 to 30 deeptech companies.

Read More: Government Schemes for Startups in India 2026: The Guide That Tells You What Not to Apply For

Space: the sector with the most proof

India’s private space sector now has a unicorn, an orbital launch and a record round. Here’s who’s building it.

Skyroot Aerospace (Hyderabad). Raised $60 million in May at a valuation of about $1.1 billion, co-led by Sherpalo Ventures and GIC. On July 18, its Vikram-1 reached a 450 km orbit and deployed four payloads, the first orbital launch by a privately built Indian rocket.

Pixxel (Bengaluru). Builds hyperspectral Earth-observation satellites. Its $100 million Series C, co-led by Temasek and Seraphim, is the largest round by an Indian spacetech company and takes total funding to $195 million. Six Firefly satellites are in orbit, and the Honeybee constellation is next.

Digantara (Bengaluru). Tracks objects and debris in orbit, a business that grows with every satellite launched. It raised $50 million in a Series B in late 2025.

Agnikul Cosmos (Chennai). Builds small-satellite launch vehicles around a single-piece 3D-printed engine. It raised about ₹150 crore at a $500 million valuation in November 2025 and is planning a space campus on 350 acres from the Tamil Nadu government.

EtherealX (Bengaluru). Developing a reusable rocket with two in-house engines, Stallion for the booster and Pegasus for the upper stage. It raised $20.5 million in a Series A at an $80.5 million valuation.

GalaxEye (Bengaluru). Launched Mission Drishti, a satellite pairing optical and radar imaging, on May 3. Contact was lost in July after an anomaly the company tied to a solar storm. It has since raised about ₹44.2 crore from existing investors and has ₹63.84 crore approved under the RDI Fund.

Bellatrix Aerospace. Builds in-space propulsion, including electric thrusters. Its $20 million Series A is one of five rounds that, per Tracxn, made up more than half of 2025-26 spacetech capital.

InspeCity (Thane). Raised ₹100 crore in pre-Series A funding in August, a big cheque at that stage.

Semiconductors: the quiet bet on Indian chips

Indian chip startups have raised about $206 million across 51 rounds since 2022, and the first half of 2026 alone brought in $61.9 million, 81% of all of 2025. At least six have completed tape-outs.

C2i Semiconductors (Bengaluru). Founded in 2024 by former Texas Instruments engineers to fix power delivery inside AI data centres. It raised a $15 million Series A led by Peak XV, then extended it to $16.7 million with TDK Ventures. Its first power-stage chip has taped out.

NetraSemi. Designs chips for smart vision, CCTV cameras and IoT. It had raised ₹107 crore from private investors by mid-2025, per Angel One.

Morphing Machines. One of four design-linked-incentive (DLI) backed companies, with C2i, NetraSemi and Mindgrove, that together drew about 56% of the private capital raised by DLI-backed startups.

Mindgrove Technologies. Had raised ₹85 crore by 2025 and is expected to begin production this year.

Agnit Semiconductors. Another name expected to start production in 2026, according to Venture Intelligence data.

BigEndian Semiconductors (Bengaluru). Raised a $6 million pre-Series A in May, led by IAN Alpha Fund, to commercialise its first system on chip for surveillance, telecom and IoT.

VerveSemi. One of four startups, with C2i, Constelli and HrdWyr, that each raised more than $10 million between January and May 2026.

Defence tech: bigger cheques, harder sales

Tracxn data shows defence-tech funding rising 61X in a decade, from $3.1 million in 2016 to $192.4 million in 2025. One company drove much of it.

Raphe mPhibr (Noida). Founded in 2017 by Vivek Mishra and Nitin Katiyar, it builds unmanned aerial systems. Its $100 million Series B, led by General Catalyst, is the biggest private round in Indian defence tech and lifts total funding to $145 million.

NewSpace Research and Technologies. Raised a $33 million Series B, one of the largest defence-tech rounds Tracxn counted in 2025.

Sagar Defence Engineering. Makes unmanned marine and aerial systems. It recorded a $25.4 million Series A, per Tracxn.

Big Bang Boom Solutions. A $29.9 million Series C puts it among the best-funded late-stage defence startups.

Tonbo Imaging. Raised a $20.4 million Series D, the latest-stage round in Tracxn’s 2025 set.

Drones, robots, quantum and sovereign AI

These five don’t fit one sector, but they share the same bet: hard technology with Indian IP.

Airbound (Bengaluru). Founded by Naman Pushp, it designs lightweight autonomous aircraft. A $37 million Series A led by Greenoaks in August took total funding to nearly $50 million. It has signed a deal with Andhra Pradesh for a three-city delivery network that could reach 10,000 daily flights.

CynLr (Bengaluru). Robotics vision for factories. Its $10 million Series A brought total funding to $15.2 million, and it counts DENSO and General Motors as customers. That round dates to January 2025, so watch for the next one.

Ati Motors (Bengaluru). Builds autonomous mobile robots for factories and warehouses. Its $20 million Series B, led by Walden Catalyst Ventures and NGP Capital, took funding past $37 million.

QpiAI (Bengaluru). India’s full-stack quantum bet. A $32 million Series A was co-led by Avataar Ventures and the National Quantum Mission, and in October it added ₹50 crore in debt from InnoVen Capital. It launched its 25-qubit QpiAI-Indus system in 2025.

Sarvam AI (Bengaluru). Building sovereign language models under the IndiaAI Mission. It completed a $300 million round at a $1.5 billion valuation, with Nvidia among the investors.

The catch: money is arriving, but unevenly

Look closely and the concentration shows. Five spacetech rounds made up more than half of 2025-26 capital. Four chip startups drew about 56% of the private money going to DLI-backed companies. Pixxel’s round alone was roughly a third of Q3’s deeptech total.

The harder gap sits further up. An IVCA survey found deeptech has drawn $11.4 billion in PE and VC since 2015, but a Series B and C gap remains, and 40% of surveyed funds hadn’t used any government capital vehicle. Bengaluru accounts for about half of all deals. GalaxEye’s lost satellite is a reminder that hardware risk doesn’t vanish when the cheque clears.

How to use this list

If you’re building in deeptech, three things stand out:

• Early cheques are being written by funds built for deeptech, so filter investors by stage and sector before pitching anyone.
• Government capital is shaping which companies cross technical milestones, so check scheme eligibility before you raise.
• Most late-stage money is going to companies that already have flight data, tape-outs or customers on record.

Not sure which funds fit your stage? Filter by sector, stage and cheque size in the VC Investor Database, then check which programmes you qualify for with the Government Scheme Finder. Working on a raise? Read how to raise pre-seed funding in India first.

Which of these 25 would you add to the list, and who did we miss? Tell us in the comments, send this to a founder building hardware in India, and keep exploring funding and founder stories on StartupIndiaX.

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